Austrian Mint

Austrian Mint

The Austrian Mint, which was founded in Vienna back in 1919, is responsible for minting the Austrian coins. The Mint has been a limited public company since back in 1989. In 1989, it became a subsidiary of the National Bank of Austria. Until 2002 it was only responsible for minting the Austrian Schilling, so it was previously a very limited mintage. After 2002, it became responsible for also producing the Austrian euro coins. That is not all the Mint does now, though, because it also is responsible for producing commemorative issued coins and gold bullion, along with other various coins. The most popular bullion coins produced by the Austrian Mint are silver and gold Philharmonics.

The Austrian Mint is also responsible for producing the blanks that many other countries use and also supplies various circulation coins as well. The history of the Austrian Mint dates back to 1194 when Duke Leopold V was paid around 15 tons of silver by Richard the Lionheart. Richard was captured and then put into prison by Duke Leopold V and then he ended up paying a bounty to get out of prison. At that point, Leopold thought it was a good idea to strike the silver to make coins, and that is when the first mint took place in Vienna. Even though it dates back that far, historical documents ended up not mentioning minting in Vienna for 200 more years. The Austrian Mint is now the sole mint in the country and it has been producing some of the finest coins the world has ever seen since.